There Should Be Teamwork Between Legislature, Executive & Judiciary : Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju

Union Minister of Law and Justice Mr.Kiren Rijiju on Saturday said that there should be a team work between the legislature, executive and the judiciary.

"Legislature, Executive and Judiciary हम अलग ओरगंस है. पर हमें एक साथ मिलके काम करना होगा, बीच में दीवार नहीं होनी चाहिए। टीम वर्क होना चाहिए।(legislature and judiciary are different organs. But we have to work together. There should not be any wall between. Team work should be there). We are separate organs but we need to work together, I believe team work is important", the Minister said.

He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the two-day national conference on "Mediation and Information Technology" at Ekta Nagar, Narmada, Gujarat.

"When judges sit in court they work independently and when we sit in Parliament, we make laws. And as part of the executive, we are determined on implementation.But if we work in different directions, and there's no coordination between judiciary and executive, it's difficult . Team work is important", the Minister stressed.

The Minister added that he has a good rapport with the Chief Justice of India (CJI ramana के साथ इतना अच्छा तालमेल है"). He mentioned that e-committee of the Supreme Court has said that it has received good coopeartion from the Department.

"The e-committee is headed by Justice Chandrachud, and he had told me they received cooperation from my Department and from state governments", Minister Rijiju said.

"Whatever judiciary expects from the executive, we will deliver," he remarked.

During his speech, the Minister spoke about the concerns raised by several quarters regarding judicial pendency, and said that alternative dispute resolution mechanisms like mediation are hence important. The ordinary litigants are struggling with the formalities of judicial system to get dates for their cases. Informal justice system is hence important, as the litigants need not wait for long. In this connection, he mentioned the Mediation Bill 2021, which was introduced in the Parliament in December 2021, and said that it could bring "transformative changes". 

"Mediation bill can bring transformational change. Right now the bill is referred to Parliamentary standing committee of law and Justice, once it comes back to the government, we'll push it through with all necessary inputs and amendments. We got useful inputs from present and former Supreme Court & High Court Judges", the Minister said. He added that mediation has been there in the Indian tradition since since Ramayana and Mahabharata days.

 "With huge numbers of pending cases before various courts from lowest court to the Supreme Court, it's urgently felt by everyone that we should look at ADR", he said.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court Aravind Kumar, Chief Minister of Gujarat Bhupendrabhai Patel also spoke at the event. Supreme Court judges Justices L Nageswara Rao, Abdul Nazeer, MR Shah, Vikram Nath and Bela Trivedi were also present at the function.